Pitch Black Review by Tim Wick

Three out of Five Beakers

Before I begin my review of Pitch Black let me give you a definition of what I call a popcorn movie.

A popcorn movie is a film that makes no attempt to change your world view, no attempt to make you laugh uproariously for two hours, no attempt to re-tell history or really engage your mind in any particularly meaningful way. Bond films are popcorn movies. Jurassic Park is a popcorn movie. In my opinion, Raiders of the Lost Ark is the ultimate popcorn movie.

Ultimately, a popcorn film can fall into any sub-genre - horror, sci-fi, thriller, etc. But they are really their own genre. Such movies are meant to be little more than a roller coaster. You spend two hours on a comparatively safe but wild ride that leaves you breathless and excited, despite being hard pressed to explain why you keep having that reaction after riding the roller coaster fifteen times.

To watch a popcorn film with the wrong kind of critical eye will inevitably end up in disappointment. Imagine watching Broken Arrow with the impression that this film is trying to tell you something important about the military and nuclear disarmament. You would think it was royally stupid and spend hours nitpicking every little detail that is wrong with the film. If you look at it as nothing more than pure entertainment, it is acceptable. Not great by any means, but a good ride.

Which brings me to Pitch Black. I could easily spend hours picking through every implausibility in this movie, but I wouldn't be able to tell you I didn't enjoy it.

Basic plot - A spaceship crash lands (we don't know why) on a planet that has three suns. The survivors start working on a way to get out and in the process discover that there are violent and dangerous creatures living underground. Fortunately the creatures seem to fear light. Then we learn the planet is about to have a total eclipse. Big problem.

The film is mostly action, but actually takes the time to develop the characters enough to make you care about them a little bit. As the body count piles up, you begin to realize there are redundancies in the cast that keep you from being able to accurately guess who might live or die. You know the kid will probably survive, but there are four of them. Will all of them make it? You need a pilot if they are all going to get away, but they have two pilots in the group so either one could be nasty nighttime alien bait. This kind of clever scripting makes this movie a little better than your standard "how many of them will get off the planet alive" fare.

Vin Diesel (recently the voice of The Iron Giant) plays a convict named Riddock. The movie could be a star making role for Diesel, who plays the role with a feral quality that draws you to him even as he horrifies you. Rhada Mitchell plays Fry, the only survivor of the ships crew and the person charged with leading the rapidly diminishing band of survivors. She carries off the role well, constantly shifting between a confident commander and a frightened navigator who only ended up in charge because her superiors were killed.

Plot holes? Oh, yes, there are tons. I won't go into them here. You will certainly notice them if you are awake, but the logic of the film is not important. I was distracted in the early going by a lot of "arty" camera shots with stretched and distorted views that were meant to give us the impression of the characters being on a desert planet. These shots were not needed and ultimately pulled me out of the movie. The fact they went away as soon as it got dark made them inconsistent. Once it got dark, though, the action took off and I forgot about the annoying camera work and just enjoyed myself.

Pitch Black will not win a single award, and will never be considered a great film. But it is a solid film that will sweep you up for a couple hours if you are willing to let it. I sure wish we had half beakers, because this is a three and a half beaker film. Given my current options, I'll call it three because it doesn't quite make four.